Bloody Pesos  (Bigwinboard.com)

Bloody Pesos: Slot Overview

The online slot industry has a long and gloriously shameless history of borrowing, imitating, and straight-up copying ideas. Some studios are guiltier than others; let's not get into finger-pointing' whataboutism'. Some might even be innocent? Exhibit A in this instance is software provider Yggdrasil Gaming's online slot Bloody Pesos, an audacious release that copies Push Gaming's classic underwater escapade Razor Shark with all the Mystery Stacks, reveals, and coin wins, while dressing it all up in a gangster, cartel, illicit smuggling theme.

Way out in the middle of the countryside resides a gaming grid set aside a fancy villa, and other smaller, scattered, less fancy buildings. Presumably, this is where the production or storage of illegal material takes place. Quite exactly what the illicit activity fuelling this 'gritty underworld of power and profit' might be is not crystal clear, which both lets Yggdrasil Gaming sidestep any contentious issues while allowing players to act out whatever crime boss fantasies they may harbour. With hints of Narcos Mexico, Wild Chapo (loosely) and The Border mixed into the skin, Bloody Pesos' real smuggling kicks in when we get to the features.

The carteling takes place on a 5-reel, 4-row grid with 20 paylines lining up winning combinations from the leftmost reel. The minimum players can stake is $/€0.20 per spin, rising to a maximum of $/€70, noting that changing the bet will change the symbols on the reels. The preferred RTP of the three possible return values is the 96% variant, while volatility is not just high, it is considered to be 'super high.'

Bloody Pesos' pay symbols are chickens, badges, money cases, skulls, and four character symbols. The first four symbols pay 2.5x the bet for a 5 OAK winning line, while hitting 5 matching characters awards 5x to 25x the bet. Wilds hit on all reels. They're able to replace any paying symbol, and they award 50x should a line of 5 wilds hit.

Bloody Pesos: Slot Features

Bloody Pesos' amusingly familiar features include Mystery Stacks, a Smuggle & Uncover feature, Bullet Storms, a Cartel Carnage bonus round, OnlyWins Mode, and a feature buy.

Mystery Stacks, Smuggle & Undercover Feature

Mystery symbols land fully stacked in the base game and during free spins. They are available on all reels and reveal random symbols. When Mystery Stacks land on the reels, the Smuggle & Uncover feature triggers. Mystery symbols nudge down 1 position on each spin. A new symbol is revealed on each spin, which can be paying symbols or Police Truck scatters. All symbols will be the same. Revealed Police Truck scatters trigger the Bullet Storm feature.

Bullet Storm

When triggered, each position of the Mystery Stack spins to land either a Bet Multiplier Coin with a value of 1x to 2,500x the bet or a scatter. Bet multiplier values are added together and paid.

Cartel Carnage

Landing or revealing 3 or more scatters on the reels triggers the Cartel Carnage bonus, which comes with free spins and an increasing multiplier. The round begins with the second and fourth reels filled with Mystery symbols, though new Mystery symbols are able to land. The multiplier starts on x1 and applies to all wins. Each time the Mystery Stacks feature triggers and Mystery symbols are present on rows other than the fourth row, the multiplier increases by +1. The increased multiplier applies to the next free spin. If Mystery symbols appear only on the fourth row, one extra free spin is granted. Free spins continue until there are no Mystery symbols left in view.

+1 Scatter

Landing the +1 scatter in the base game when 3 scatters have already landed causes the Mystery Stacks to nudge up by one position in free spins. In free spins, it can be revealed by Mystery Stacks during the Bullet Storm feature with a maximum of 3 scatter symbols.

OnlyWins Mode & Feature Buy

Activating the OnlyWins mode costs 2 times the bet, but provides a 99.99% chance of winning on each spin. The feature buy lets players buy into the Cartel Carnage bonus game at a cost of 50x the bet.

Bloody Pesos: Slot Verdict

If you thought Yggdrasil Gaming slots had been on a downward trajectory of late, then Bloody Pesos is, in some ways, like greasing up for the next leg down. It's obviously a blatant copy of Push Gaming's iconic Razor Shark, a blinder of a slot which helped put the studio on the map when it was released in 2019. Here we are six years later, with a studio of Yggdrasil Gaming's stature confiscating a competitor's slot and reusing the inner nuts and bolts in a piece of its own. Adding to the feeling Yggdrasil Gaming is running on fumes, it's not long ago, the studio ripped off another classic when it released Scara-Bucks - in that case, it was a copy of Play'n GO's iconic cluster pays slot Reactoonz.

It is what it is, and Bloody Pesos does admittedly possess things Razor Shark did not. One of those things is the OnlyWins ante bet mode, which almost, not quite completely, but almost guarantees a win on each and every spin. Not all wins will cover the stake, but hey, it is an entertaining mode, since something happens on just about every single spin. The feature buy is relatively thrifty, too, at 50x the bet, yet, like OnlyWins, the feature buy doesn't guarantee to spit out more than was fed in. But, players who like having a wider range of buys or boosters on tap get a couple here that don't ship with Razor Shark.

There's the theme change too, though, while the crime angle is neatly utilised, it is neither here nor there in terms of being a game maker or breaker. Stats are a highpoint, including a max win of 90,000x the bet, and the gameplay is arguably about as good as it ever was. Still, like week old guacamole that's been left on the bench and gone brown, Bloody Pesos can't help but come across a bit stale. It's fun and all, but too close to the original for comfort.